The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure.
In creating cable components, such as fiber optics components for oilfield applications, special care is taken to protect the optical fibers in the downhole environment. Often, this has been accomplished by sealing them in a seam-welded tube. This strategy may have problems including, but not limited to, wherein the seam-welding process may be relatively slow and fiber optic components with metal tubes may be expensive. Difficult-to-detect pinholes may form or remain when the tubes are welded to encase the optical fibers, welding gases may be trapped inside the tube, which may lead to deterioration of the optical fibers inside the tube, which may lead to optical signal attenuation. The metal tube is sufficiently thick to prevent collapse under moderate loads or torque, or under high pressure, which thickness may take up valuable space within the cable core. The metal tube may have limited flexibility, may have a low fatigue life in dynamic applications, and often cannot be spliced without over-sizing the metal tube.
Some embodiments have incorporated shaped, semi-circular-profile wires that come together to form a circular component over one or more optical fibers encased in a soft polymer at the component core. While this method avoids many of the problems of seam-welded tubing, it is difficult to hold the shaped wires in the proper orientation as they are brought together over the core.
It remains desirable to provide improvements in wireline cables, cable components, and/or downhole assemblies.